Carrie Underwood

You couldn't really argue with the American Idol veteran's performance of ''Before He Cheats.'' That's because you couldn't really absorb it given the rather distracting presence of (1) the singer's weird, shiny outfit, (2) an apocalyptic, fiery backdrop, and (3) what appeared to be half the cast of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome hitting things with pipes. Alas, with such competition, Underwood's own pipes failed to make much of an impact. B-